So I'm at work when my buddy Tom (who cheerily posed in front of the WinHEC x64 sign here) brings to my attention a bit of irony in an MSN ad. The truth is I've seen this kind of thing before (Google or MSN -- neither is immune to these contextual faux pas) but for some reason this one just stood out as particularly amusing -- perhaps because it involves echinacea and just smells of late night infomercials.

The ad is for echinacea, but the story is explaining that echinacea has no scientific proof of being effective. Funny, eh?

As one of my ol' teachers used to say, "If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?" (We'd say, "Dann," but that's not the point.)

The funny twist continues because I found this so amusing, I tuck a screenshot away for future blog entry. The next day, my boy Mike IMs me and I tell him the story, sending him a screenshot of the funny ad. So now Tom, who started it all, has spread the joy to Mike through me.